Spiking to be made specific offence, Keir Starmer reiterates

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosts a summit at 10 Downing Street, central London, with police chiefs, transport bosses and industry leaders to urge a co-ordinated response to spiking and violence against women and girls. Picture date: Monday November 25, 2024.
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In a bid to beef up the fight against spiking, Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to make the act a specific criminal offence. This intent was voiced in order to instill "the confidence to come forward" in potential victims.

These commitments were shared during a meeting at Downing Street on Monday morning, which included discussions with top figures from police, transport, and the hospitality sector.

Among those present were Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and justice minister Alex Davies-Jones.

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Despite already being illegal under current laws, most notably the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, Labour promised in its election manifesto to introduce a distinct offence.

However, this year's King’s Speech lacked any explicit mention of such legislation, only hinting towards enhancing police response to spiking incidents.

At the round-table discussion, Sir Keir emphasized: "There are a number of measures that we are setting out this morning – we want to talk it through with you."

"The first is to make spiking a specific offence so that it counts, it’s reported."

He added this would enable "everybody to have the confidence to come forward" and ensure perpetrators "know that it’s a specific offence".

Discussing the training scheme, he continued: "We’re beginning the piloting of training for staff in venues."

He explained that the scheme would be "partly to spot what’s happening, but also to know what to do in the event that there is an incident in a venue" and would start in December with a pilot, before beginning its full roll out from March of next year.

He also mentioned the "final" point of discussion for the morning was "police indexing – (the) way that we count it across different police forces".

Sir Keir added: "At the moment it’s quite hard to get your arms around the pure numbers."

The meeting on Monday morning is also expected to hear about tactics already being used in response to the issue.

Plain clothes officers are being deployed in areas around bars and clubs to spot predatory behaviour, and Chief Constable Jason Hogg of Thames Valley Police is due to set out to the meeting how his force is implementing such measures.

Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi, of British Transport Police, will highlight the relaunch of the text-to-report number, 61016, which is free across all major networks and invites women to contact the force for help in the event of harassment on the train.

Other figures attending the meeting include Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality and chairwoman of the Institute of Licensing, and Chief Constable Maggie Blythe, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for VAWG.

Ahead of a crucial meeting, Sir Keir Starmer has made it clear that his administration is committed to reclaiming the streets for public safety, particularly for women and girls. He stated: "My Government was elected on a pledge to take back our streets, and we will never achieve this if women and girls do not feel safe at night.

"Today, I will bring together police chiefs, heads of industry and transport bosses to demand coordinated action to stop women being targeted, whether they are out with friends or simply travelling home.

"Cracking down on spiking is central to that mission.

"We know it can be incredibly difficult for victims to come forward to report this awful crime, and these cases can be very hard to prosecute. We must do more to bring the vile perpetrators who carry out this cowardly act, usually against young women and often to commit a sexual offence, to justice."

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Spiking is a disturbing and serious crime which can have a damaging and long-lasting impact on victims.

"That’s why today we are taking decisive action to prevent this devastating crime and to crack down on perpetrators, by introducing a new criminal offence for spiking and launching specialist training for thousands of bar staff nationwide.

"People shouldn’t have to worry about the safety of their drinks on a night out. These changes are about giving victims greater confidence to come forward, and ensuring that there is a robust response from the police whenever these appalling crimes take place."